An Overview of The Book of Genesis

This is the account of the heavens and the earth when they were created, when the LORD God made the earth and the heavens (Gn 2:4)

The Holy Bible is a Christian scripture respected and believed in by about 2.3 billion people, which is 29% of the global population. Today, the Bible has been distributed to some six billion people - 80% of humanity. Yet the paradox is that, although being the best-selling book year-on-year, it is considered among the least readable. Genesis is the first of the 66 books of the Bible which God showed His prophet Moses thousands of years after they had taken place for Moses to record. Let's take a look at the first of the 39 books of the Old Testament.

Main Figures and Events in Genesis
*Every Biblical name has a meaning included in brackets

• Adam (man): Adam sinned by betraying God's command and eating the fruit of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. The wages of sin is death (Rom 6:23), which has plagued all creation
• Noah (comfort): believed in God's promise by building an ark. Only Noah's family - eight in all - were saved from the impending flood
• Abraham (father of many): obedient to God, even offering his son, Isaac, as a burnt offering
• Isaac (he laughs): although deceived by his son, Jacob, Isaac gave him his blessing in place of Jacob's older brother, Esau
• Jacob (he deceives): After wrestling with and overcoming the angel, God renamed him 'Israel', meaning 'he struggles with God'. Israel had 12 sons, who formed the 12 tribes
• Joseph (God will increase): During Joseph's life in Egypt, Israel's descendants moved to the land of Egypt

The main figures of Genesis are Adam, Noah, Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, and Joseph. Genesis is a story centred on promises made between God and people and the first step towards thoroughly understanding the content of God’s covenants (promises) and the consequences of not keeping them.

Reference Verses

And the LORD God made all kinds of trees grow out of the ground-trees that were pleasing to the eye and good for food. In the middle of the garden were the tree of life and the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. (Genesis 2:9)

This is the account of Noah. Noah was a righteous man, blameless among the people of his time, and he walked with God. (Genesis 6:9)

No longer will you be called Abram; your name will be Abraham, for I have made you a father of many nations. (Genesis 17:5)

Then God said, 'Yes, but your wife Sarah will bear you a son, and you will call him Isaac. I will establish my covenant with him as an everlasting covenant for his descendants after him. (Genesis 17:19)

After this, his brother came out, with his hand grasping Esau's heel; so he was named Jacob. Isaac was sixty years old when Rebekah gave birth to them. (Genesis 25:26)

Then the man said, 'Your name will no longer be Jacob, but Israel, because you have struggled with God and with men and have overcome.‘ (Genesis 32:28)

The sons of Leah: Reuben the firstborn of Jacob, Simeon, Levi, Judah, Issachar and Zebulun. The sons of Rachel: Joseph and Benjamin. The sons of Rachel's maidservant Bilhah: Dan and Naphtali. The sons of Leah's maidservant Zilpah: Gad and Asher. These were the sons of Jacob, who were born to him in Paddan Aram. (Genesis 35:23-26)

Therefore, just as sin entered the world through one man, and death through sin, and in this way death came to all men, because all sinned- (Romans 5:12)

By faith Noah, when warned about things not yet seen, in holy fear built an ark to save his family. By his faith he condemned the world and became heir of the righteousness that comes by faith. (Hebrews 11:7)